returning

a recent Cultures of Care session with Ruth Singer was about Ruth's lanscape work and how it's links with this topic  - we also touched on how we can interact with the environment without taking anything out of it

all this reminded me of how much i enjoyed my explorations during Place Making and my past experiments with nature art  - how these gave outings into my environment a sense of purpose through physical interaction with it - i really struggle with the idea of "going for a walk" being good for your wellbeing, but it now begins to make sense for me 

i have always found it easy to walk around urban areas because i feel there is more there that i can associate with - natural environments are attractive but i always feel i should be inspired by them in some way, yet i am happy to go and pick up a few conkers or interesting foliage to arrange and leave for others to find - i don't need to come back with an awesomely inspiring concept, just playing like a child with mud and sticks is enough really

so today i made good on my promise to myself to return to our local wildlife sanctuary, to sit and make from gathered ingredients, and/or journal about it on the spot - it got too hot to stay and write, but i gathered some fallen fruits and nibbled nut shells, wove a little dish for them and recorded my little offering

on my gathering expedition i came across windfall plums or damsons, so a bit of foraging happened as well!

collecting thoughts 3 - principles

11TH Dec 2020 - listening to the other group members today helped me to distill my guidelines which remained vague even after a couple of weeks of reflection

explore - 

• the routes i currently walk, several of which are new to me, others more familiar, all offer different potential for collecting

collect - 

• occasional natural resources and found objects
• images, textures, impressions, observations

record and express - 

• on paper, where & when relevant
• later on fabric with my dyed yarns
• digitally here and as photos 

materials: mostly what i have in stock already with some additional collected materials from my walks - use ecodyed fabrics and yarns from my stash - these draw on earlier learning and experience and form the foundation on which this project is based - they come from the place i have occupied for the past many years

 work towards making a variety of useful items which express and reflect "my place"  through the materials and imagery used -  until recently my environment has mostly been indoors in my home and the garden - so exploring my local enviroment and getting out of the house independently on a regular basis represents a new beginning for me - i want to use this course as a way towards recording it in a tangible way, sometimes as objects i can hold and use 

beginnings

 a new course, a new blog - just for me to record what i am doing and thinking 

trying to achieve some focus and purpose

lockdown has been something of a release for me - for once everyon is limited in what they can do and where they can go - i've been like that for 20 years so suddenly opportunities are opening up to enable those who would normally be out & about to carry on and access he stuff they are used to - for me that has opened doors which i could not even get to let alone through!

this Place Making course with Alice Fox is an example of that - and it is bringing together participants from all round the country as well as overseas - fabulous - i really hope we make the most of the opportunity and build on opportunities to exchange ideas from a distance 

this morning was the first session and i will say more about that later - this is simply an opening ramble to get down some of my thinking around doing this course 

i've finally started to explore my own surrounding area a bit more recently - taking walks to increase my physical activity, very gradually, for various health-related reasons 

a by-product of that is that i am getting to know the area and my own "environment" has expanded - it just struck me that untitll i started the walks my main environment was indoors, home, kitchen focused - but i now feel increasingly familiar with the neighbourhood - it would be good to be able to record that transition in some way and this course gives me a good starting point for that

some of the things which have gone before and could help me on the way: 

• collection found objects and materials
• eco and natural dying classes and experience 
• attempts at nature-art
• learning to look and notice
• improvising and making from what is available
• a life-time of dabbling
• having time on my hands
• curiosity
• learned to focus more on process than end product (i'd like to reflect the process more in the product somehow, or is it inherent?)